Get The Most Out Of Your Marketing Podcast – Episode 2

Get The Most Out Of Your Marketing Podcast – Episode 2

In the second Get The Most Out of Your Marketing podcast Glenn Bartlett and Jeff Cooper from Step Change tackle the task of creating an easy to follow marketing plan. Each month the guys show you how to increase your sales, generate more traffic, attract more attention, gain more credibility, outsmart your competitors and offer a unique customer experience that will keep your customers coming back for more.

How Do You Create An Easy To Follow Marketing Plan?

Background: My small boutique, sole trader, accounting firm is moving into financial planning. I want an easy marketing strategy to implement weekly. Currently, we email clients our newsletter and I make two acquisition calls a week. I have received marketing quotes in excess of $20,000 which is too expensive for a small firm.
In this question we will explore the following topics:

The power of messaging

Overcoming customer barriers

Selling using implications

Nailing the service

Customer acquisition costs

Net promoter scores

Using associations for leads

Marketing automation

The power of messaging

The first lesson to learn here is that messaging is always the starting point of marketing. It is six times more powerful than the medium as the medium will always be limited by the power of your message. The message is your selling point. It demonstrates your point of difference from other services in the industry. A great starting point for this is to talk to your customers and gauge what it is they want to hear – but always making sure you frame it in a way that’s pithy and exciting. Messaging shouldn’t be boring. Don’t use the typical ‘we’ve been around since 1980’ because it doesn’t really tell your customers anything exciting. You need to frame your offerings in a way that’s unique, exciting and fresh. Remember, your messaging is what will generate customer interest. For the financial industry, the main message should focus on the service advantage you are able to offer to
your customers.

Overcoming barriers

Getting people to purchase a financial service for the first time is difficult. After working with over 90 clients a year, we have realised that there are a lot of Australians that are still unsure of what financial services are. This is the barrier. You need to educate the customer and help them overcome any negative assumptions they might have about the category. You need to create a simple to understand, robust selling process that you use with all potential customers. This process needs to be simple. More importantly, it needs to highlight all their emotional pain points, as that is your best selling point. You need to frame your service as the one thing that will alleviate their pain. Do this, and you’ll sell every time.

Features tell, implications sell

A lot of businesses focus on the features – we have 10 staff, we have 6 tables etc. This is not exciting for the customer and they will not buy your product or offering because of this. What they want is the implication – what it means for them. They want to know, because you have 10 staff members, that their questions will always be responded to. This is a great opportunity for you to write down a list of all the features and benefits your company offers, and then take it a step further by asking yourself, what are the implications of each of these for your customers.

Nailing the Service

Another principle to keep in your mind is a shift in the way you think. Everything we do with our clients, every touch point, every conversation should be something newsworthy. It should be such a great and remarkable experience that it makes them wants to tell other people. It could even be as simple as getting them all coffees or offering them a cold beer. The point here is to think about what you can do to make your business experience, better than your competitor’s business experience. For most people, financial services all seem the same and nothing seems to be differentiated. Service therefore becomes your primary differentiator.

Customer acquisition cost

BRW puts the average cost of customer acquisition to $650. When calculating how much you should spend on marketing, you need to ask yourself, how much are you willing to pay for a new customer and how much money will that customer generate for you in their lifetime? After knowing how much they will generate over their lifetime, paying $650 for a customer that might generate $3000 becomes a no brainer. You need to use this kind of mentality when budgeting for marketing and strategy expenditure.

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Net promoter scores

After acquiring the customer, you should think about implementing a Net Promoter Scoring System. This is a great tool to see how great your service is and whether or not people would be happy to recommend you to their friend. The people who score you a 9-10 are known as promoters and you should approach them for a Google review. Google reviews are the cheapest and most cost effective way of doing SEO as well as demonstrating your business credibility. Doing this will let you know what your customers think about your service. This will let you know what you are doing well, what you need to improve on and what would make your products and offerings, a 10.

Finding leads through associations

There are more associations in Australia than any other country. These associations have your customers. The insight here is that they are struggling to deliver value and relevance to members, which means there is a niche for your business and trade area. You can target these associations with a targeted piece of content i.e Financial Planning for Engineers. This will make them more likely to buy your product and offerings. Your job is to get into an annual conference with an association. Once you do this, you open the door to more customer leads.

Marketing Automation

Introducing marketing automation is a great way to get into your customers’ inboxes. Rather than creating a newsletter, a great idea is to consider creating a content series based on a topic i.e. ‘9 Ways to Budget for SMEs’ and craft a 9-week email series. You need to brainstorm a list of ways you can add value to your client’s every day life. This way, you are in your client’s inbox every week demonstrating your expertise.